Pressurized metal cans that hold and dispense products under pressure, such as bug spray, paint or deodorant, are well known and widely used across many different industries. Increasingly, pressurized plastic vessels (e.g., bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate, a.k.a. “PET bottles”), rather than pressurized metal cans, are being used to hold and dispense all types of products, including without limitation, aerosols, mists, lotions, ointments, gels and foams. In such cases, it is often necessary or desirable for ergonomic, safety and/or sanitary reasons to attach large or oversized actuators to the pressurized plastic vessels. However, whereas the bodies of metal cans are easily adapted to accept and hold large or oversized actuators while resisting internal pressure, the bodies of pressurized plastic vessels under internal pressure do not have the structural strength and rigidity required to hold and maintain the special geometries necessary for securely attaching, holding, detaching and re-attaching large and oversized actuators. Consequently, the actuators for pressurized plastic vessels are typically attached to the neck portions of the pressurized plastic vessels. As a result, pressurized plastic vessels will typically have relatively small actuators having cross-sectional areas that are roughly the same size or smaller than the valve cup fitted to the neck portions of the plastic vessels. For certain products, such as hair sprays, lotions and sunscreens, or other relatively slippery, foamy or oily substances, these relatively small actuators can be uncomfortable, inconvenient, hard to use and/or hard to keep clean. If the actuator also acts a closure for the plastic vessel, the relatively small actuator makes it difficult, if not impossible, to stand the plastic vessel on a substantially flat surface with the actuating and dispensing end of the plastic vessel in a downward orientation.
Addressing the aforementioned problems by increasing the cross-sectional area of the neck portion of the plastic vessel or increasing the cross-sectional area of the valve cup attached to the neck portion would be cost prohibitive due to the fact that most plastic bottles are blow-molded from blanks having neck portions that are selected from one of a limited number of standard (and smaller) sizes. Thus, plastic vessels with standard-sized neck portions and standard-sized valve cups that fit standard-sized neck portions are relatively plentiful, inexpensive and easy to acquire. However, plastic vessels with very large neck portions, as well as very large valve cups for standard or large plastic vessel neck portions are rare and relatively expensive to purchase or manufacture in large quantities.
Accordingly, there exists a significant need across multiple industries for large and/or oversized actuators that will fit pressurized plastic vessels that have neck portions and corresponding valve cups that are relatively common in size and are, therefore, relatively easy to acquire and/or manufacture in large quantities. There is also a significant need for large and oversized actuators that do not require that the plastic vessel to which they are attached have any special internal pressure-resistant geometry in the shoulder portions of the plastic vessel in order to provide a secure and stable fit for the large or oversized actuators. And there is also a need to address the above-described problems with a solution that minimizes the number of secondary operations required to manufacture, assemble and attach the large or oversized actuators to the plastic vessels.